Lou Ottens, technical director of Philips’ Audio Industry Group, whose team took the compact disc prototype to Japan in 1979. Photo Jordi Huisman (2007), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The compact disc
What it took directly
- documentedthe compact disc took from the prototype player Philips showed the international press in Eindhoven on 8 March 1979"On 8 March 1979, N.V. Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken demonstrated for the international press a Compact Disc Audio Player." IEEE Milestone citation, Engineering and Technology History Wiki
- documentedthe compact disc took from Philips's 115 mm demonstration disc, sized to the diagonal of a compact cassette"The demonstration disc Philips brought to Japan had a diameter of 115mm. This diameter matched the diagonal length of the compact cassettes that were the main audio system at the time." DutchAudioClassics.nl, history of the six Philips/Sony meetings (1979–80)
- statedthe CD's 74-minute, 12 cm disc took from Norio Ohga's demand that one disc hold all of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony"He argued that, Just as a curtain is never lowered halfway through an opera, a disc should be large enough to hold all of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony." Norio Ohga (Sony), as told in Sony's corporate history of the CD (Sony Global, archived 2008). The DutchAudioClassics history tells the same argument
- documentedthe CD's 120 mm diameter took from an April 1980 agreement between Sony's Norio Ohga and Philips's Joop van Tilburg"A diameter of 120mm and thickness of 1.2mm were confirmed, according to the specifications agreed on in early April between Sony vice president Ōga Norio and Philips audio division general manager Joop van Tilburg." DutchAudioClassics.nl, history of the six Philips/Sony meetings (1979–80)
- documentedthe CD's 44.1 kHz sampling rate took from Sony's PCM-1600 master recorder (March 1978), so studio masters could go to disc without resampling"Sony withdrew its initial insistence on 50.4kHz in favor of 44.1kHz, as this was the frequency it used in the PCM-1600 master recorder released in March 1978." DutchAudioClassics.nl, history of the six Philips/Sony meetings (1979–80)
- documentedthe CD's error correction (CIRC) took from a test on discs scratched with sand, where Sony's cross-interleaved Reed-Solomon method beat Philips's"The third round was a comparison of discs that had deliberately been scratched with sand on a tabletop, and this time Sony’s method was clearly better." DutchAudioClassics.nl, history of the six Philips/Sony meetings (1979–80)
- documentedthe CD's 16-bit resolution took from a listening test on the ring of a triangle, after which the task force chose 16 bits over Philips's proposed 14"Heemskerk (Philips chief engineer) recalled that as they all listened to the metallic clang reverberate, he thought, “There seems to be no difference, but maybe there is”." Jacques Heemskerk, Philips chief engineer, recalling the test, in DutchAudioClassics.nl, history of the six Philips/Sony meetings (1979–80)
- statedthe CD took from polycarbonate, a plastic used for car bumpers, found after the discs kept warping"After successively testing various materials, a new material called polycarbonate, used for making automobile bumpers, was found." Sony's corporate history of the CD (Sony Global, archived 2008)
- inferredthe CD's 15 mm center hole comes from the Dutch 10-cent coin, the dubbeltje"Incidentally, the 15mm inner bore diameter of the disc was the size of the Dutch 10 cent coin." inferred: the DutchAudioClassics history says the hole "was the size of" the coin and calls the coin the hole's "DNA"; it does not say who chose the size, or why
What it learned to do
- statedSony's compact disc team learned from Philips's 1979 prototype, which turned Sony from long-play digital discs toward a small audio disc"We hadn’t even thought as far as a commercial product, but our eyes were opened and we were very impressed by Philips’ approach" Heitarō Nakajima (Sony), recalling the demonstration, quoted in DutchAudioClassics.nl, history of the six Philips/Sony meetings (1979–80), which draws on Nakajima's books and Masahiro Mizushima's meeting memorandum
- documentedthe compact disc learned from the joint task force: Heitarō Nakajima, Senri Miyaoka, Toshitada Doi and Masahiro Mizushima of Sony; Pieter Bögels, Marino Carraso, Joop Sinjou and Jacques Heemskerk of Philips"The attendees were Nakajima Heitarō, Miyaoka Senri (manager of the Disc Development Division), Doi Toshitada (deputy director of the technical laboratory) and Mizushima Masahiro from Sony, and Pieter Bögels, Marino Carraso (manager of the Optical Disc Research Division, Research Center), Joop Sinjou and Jacques Heemskerk from Philips." DutchAudioClassics.nl, history of the six Philips/Sony meetings (1979–80)
- statedPhilips and Sony engineers learned from each other: Sony studied Philips's optical disc work in Eindhoven, Philips studied Sony's signal processing and error correction in Tokyo"The Sony researchers visited Eindhoven to study Philips disc technology. Philips' researchers visited Sony, learning what they could about digital signal processing and signal error correction." Sony's corporate history of the CD (Sony Global, archived 2008)
- documentedthe compact disc learned from both companies equally: the meetings ended with an agreement that Sony and Philips contributed equally to modulation and error correction"Philips and Sony agreed that contribution to modulation as well as error correction from Sony and Philips is equal." DutchAudioClassics.nl, history of the six Philips/Sony meetings (1979–80)
- statedSony's first CD player (CDP-101) learned from Katsuaki Tsurushima, whose two-axis pickup mechanism, nicknamed Tsurusu, kept the laser on track"A dual-axis device named Tsurusu, after Tsurushima, was developed to ensure that the light of the optical pickup exactly followed the bits on the spinning disc." Sony's corporate history of the CD (Sony Global, archived 2008)
The tradition it sits in
- documentedthe compact disc comes from the compact cassette: the developers' shared task was to go "from compact cassette to compact disc""The shared development task of the developers was to go “from compact cassette to compact disc”." DutchAudioClassics.nl, history of the six Philips/Sony meetings (1979–80)
- documentedthe compact disc comes from James T. Russell's optical digital recording system, built at Battelle in Richland, Washington, and patented in 1970"Battelle let Russell pursue the project, and after years of work, Russell succeeded in inventing the first digital-to-optical recording and playback system (patented in 1970)." Lemelson-MIT Inventor of the Week (December 1999). Per The Seattle Times (2004), Sony and Philips saw Russell's work in the 1970s but did not license it then; his patents were later the subject of licensing claims
- documentedJames T. Russell's optical recording idea comes from his frustration as a listener with worn vinyl records; he played them with hand-sharpened cactus needles"Russell was the sort who used cactus needles on his record player; they had to be hand-sharpened after each use, but the sound was better and they wouldn't wear out albums as fast as metal needles." Brier Dudley, The Seattle Times (November 29, 2004)
- inferredthe CD's optical pickup comes from the laser video disc, whose helium-neon laser was far too big for a 12 cm player"The helium neon gas laser used with the video disc was 20 cm longer and thus far too big to be used with a new 12 cm disc system." inferred: Sony's history measures the CD's pickup against the video disc player's laser and parts; it does not say the CD's optics descend from the video disc
Where the whole form comes from
- statedthe compact disc comes from a century of recorded sound since Edison's phonograph, remade about every 25 years: disc, electrical recording, the LP, stereo"It had been approximately 100 years since Edison invented the phonograph, and record technology had been revolutionized about every 25 years since." Sony's corporate history of the CD (Sony Global, archived 2008)
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